the Texas Hamburger

Rick Vanderpool got to Texas from Georgia some years ago and found a home here. He settled in Commerce where he excelled in putting on events like the Bois d’arc Bash, an event to honor the bois d’arc tree. Many homes in Commerce are built on sturdy stumps from that tree. Rick wrote poetry and songs about the bois d’arc. Among his other accomplishments, he became publisher of the Commerce Journal.

He makes his living mostly as a photographer, although he has authored two books, written a screen play, designed fabric, created posters and puzzles on everything from coffee to wildflowers and has some outstanding commissions. He did the photography for my book on East Texas folklore. His pictures hang in some of the most prestigious buildings in Texas. I know lots of photographers and Rick Vanderpool has found more ways to make a living with his camera than any of them.

When the 500th anniversary of Columbus coming to America rolled around in 1992, Rick visited every city in the US named Columbus. He took pictures and designed a gallery showing of them. He doesn’t think small. Recently he photographed thousands of images of the Permian Basin, South Plains and Panhandle for the Texas Plains Trail. He likes the area so much he has moved from Commerce to Lubbock. More recently he spent four months traveling 11,000 miles visiting hamburger joints in Texas. The result is his latest book, The Texas Hamburger, History of the Lone Star Icon. He also developed a poster containing pictures of hamburgers and places that make them. He wrote a hamburger song and it’s now in the hands of some prominent musicians.

“The good folks in Athens declared me their Hambassador,” Rick says with a chuckle. Athens is the legendary birthplace of the hamburger and Rick went to that city and told the folks he wanted to gather stories about hamburgers. They liked his idea and even gave him some expense money. He and the Athens people emailed 2,000 people and asked them to list their three favorite hamburger places. “I call them my hamburger helpers,” says Rick. “It was a wonderful network of county judges, ag extension agents, tourism professionals and friends from every county in Texas. I ended up with a list of 750 Texas hamburger joints.”

Rick visited all 750 of them, took pictures, listened to people extol the virtues of their favorite hamburger and was surprised to find some of the places where good hamburgers are made. “Little convenience stores with an 11 by 14 flat top griddle make hundreds of burgers during the lunch run. All the cooks have their secret seasonings and spices.” His book contains stories about people’s favorite hamburgers. It’s published by the History Press.

The legendary story says a man named Fletcher Davis made the first hamburger at an Athens café in the 1880’s (meat, bread, pickles, onions, mustard) and later took his concoction to the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis.